Kingston High School Principal Vince DeCicco was put on unpaid leave this week after it was revealed that he’d used the term “fudge-packers” in a post on social media site Facebook.
“He’s on unpaid administrative leave until we make some decisions around this,” said KCSD Superintendent Paul Padalino.
Padalino said the post was brought to the district’s attention by faculty, adding that he was unable to comment further because it’s a personnel issue. Padalino said he was only able to confirm DeCicco was involved because the principal revealed he’d made the post in an interview with the Daily Freeman on Tuesday, September 20. In that interview, DeCicco said he used the derogatory term as a common slight on the Green Bay Packers football team, longtime rival of the Chicago Bears, and denied intending to offend anyone in the LGBTQ community.
As for the school district, Padalino said teachers and administrators should strive to be inclusive with its diverse student population, and should consider whether something they say or post online could be misconstrued.
“We’ve been doing culturally responsive training and diversity, equity and inclusion training for the last seven years,” Padalino said. “These are the standard tenets of the training, to make sure that we are – especially as educators and especially as leaders – conscious of what we say and how we say it, regardless of intention. A hallmark of the training is avoiding micro-aggressions and making sure that we are sensitive to our faculty, our staff, our students and our community.”
Padalino would not confirm that a special executive session by the Board of Education held on Monday, September 19, was connected to DeCicco’s post.
DeCicco has been the principal at Kingston High since 2019, previously serving as KHS vice-principal for three years, and interim principal at Ernest C. Myer Elementary School for one year. He’s been with the district for 16 years.
DeCicco could not be reached for comment.
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